Hall carves out Halloween activities

Visitors to the English Heritage attraction will find a number of Halloween activities taking place this week.

Pumpkin carving artist Daniel Nyman has been hard at work, and people can follow a trail through the gardens to try to find all nine elaborately carved specimens.

There will also be various Halloween-themed craft activities in the Hall.

And those venturing to the castle may find the pumpkin creations aren’t the only spooky faces to be seen.

Site manager Rebecca Pullan said: “Those who have visited Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens previously may have spotted the unusual and creepy carved face of a lady in one of the walls near Belsay’s castle.

“There are lots of theories and stories about who this lady was and how her face came to be carved into the stone. Was she a witch? Or a person who was cast into stone by a spell, trapped in the wall forever?

“Although it would be nice to tell a story like that for Halloween, the most likely explanation we have has a much nicer ending.

“Verbal accounts say that she was, in fact, the castle’s cook and a stonemason working on the castle took such a shine to her that he carved her portrait into the wall.”